indigo dyed cottons of two qualities, a superior kind with shiny
surface for the better classes, and one rather inferior with no gloss for
the lower people. Fancy articles find no sale.

One of the greatest difficulties that a trader has to contend with is the
impossibility of selling anything for ready money, and thus making small
but quick profits. Credit has to be given generally for one year,
eighteen months, and even as long as two years. Even in the few cases
where credit has been allowed for one or two months the greatest
difficulty is experienced in obtaining payment for the goods supplied,
threats and applications to the Amir being often necessary. Delays are
constant, although the money is always paid in the end.

This necessitates keeping the prices very high to compensate for the
loss, but by careful handling good profits can be made, if sufficient
capital is at hand to keep the concern going.

The caravanserai in which Umar-al-din had hired several rooms which he
had turned into a shop was now known by the name of the English
Caravanserai, and nearly all the caravans with Indian and Afghan goods
halted there. When I went to visit the place there were a number of
Afghan soldiers who had conveyed some prisoners, who had escaped into
Afghan territory, back from Herat to Birjand. Their rifles, with bayonets
fixed, were stacked on the platform outside, and they loitered about, no
two soldiers dressed alike. Some had old English military uniforms which
they wore over their ample white or blue cotton trousers. These fellows
looked very fierce and treacherous, with cruel mouths and unsteady eyes.
They wore pointed embroidered peaks inside their turbans, and curly hair
flowed upon their shoulders. At a distance they were most picturesque but
extremely dirty.

A number of Beluch _mari_, or running camels, were being fed with huge
balls of paste which were stuffed down their mouths by their owners.
These camel men were the first Beluch I had come across, and although
they wore huge white flowing robes, long hair, and pointed turbans not
unlike the Afghans, the difference in the features and expression of the
faces was quite marked. One could see that they were fighting people, but
they had nice, honest faces; they looked straight in one's eyes, and had
not the sneakish countenance of their northern neighbours.

CHAPTER XII

A loud explosion--Persian military officers--Dr. Abbas Ali Khan,
British